Four Elderly Believers Arrested and Threatened by Police

On June 1, 2018, the police raided a meeting place of The Church of Almighty God in the Yongchuan district of the city of Chongqing, arresting four believers.

Three elderly members of The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese Christian new religious movement, Tang Yong (68), Kang Hua (78), and Wu Ming (64) went to the home of a fellow believer, Zhang Xiangming (81, all names are pseudonyms), for a gathering. A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) informant tipped-off the village committee about this religious meeting. As a result, the village head took the village’s security defense chief to Zhang Xiangming’s home, where they forcibly confiscated three MP5 players, a microSD card, and a notebook. They threatened Wu Ming, “If you keep believing in God, we’ll stop your subsistence allowance,” and called the police.

Twenty minutes later, the chief of the local police station and four police officers arrived. Without showing any credentials, they then searched the house, leaving it in a mess. After turning up nothing in their search, police escorted Zhang Xiangming and the other three Christians to a squad car and took them to the local police station.

In the interrogation room, one officer asked Tang Yong, “Who converted you? What church do you belong to? Who are your church leaders?” When Tang Yong refused to answer, the police officer then followed with threats, saying, “The Communist Party doesn’t allow you to believe in this, so you can’t believe in it! If you continue to believe, you won’t be allowed to go home.”

In another interrogation room, the police questioned Zhang Xiangming. Upon discovering that he was unwilling to answer their questions, the police threatened, “If you continue to believe and we catch you, you’ll be locked up for ten to fifteen days and be fined.” Then, they took Zhang Xiangming’s hand and forced him to sign and fingerprint a document before releasing him.

On June 2, an officer from the public security bureau and three officers from the local police station later returned to Zhang Xiangming’s home. They took pictures of Zhang Xiangming and his house without permission and gave him a phone number, telling him that if any other Christians came to visit him, he would have to call the number and report them.

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